TEE AMERICAN BEE JOUENAL. 



61 



[For the American 



Argo's Proposal. 



i.Tounial.] 



Mr Editor:— I proposed a report of this 

 season's op. ratious wiUi bees, for the Septem- 

 be? nuinl.er of the Journal, in comparison 

 with Novice, but as the quantity ot cup houey 

 well as the increase of stocks, was 



be in- 



oluaecl, I shall have to defer it until October 

 from the fact that I have not taken otf d he 

 cftiKS yet. I keep an exact account ot all honey 

 taken, as it will be as interesting to myself as 

 to the readers of the Journal, to know what 

 bees cau do in a (rood season, mostly ot them- 

 selves, as I did not do much to assist them, i 

 was in bad health all the season, and made only 

 two artificial swarms; which were merely started 

 as nuclei, with tAvo frames and a partition board, 

 to raise queens. As soon as the queens were lay- 

 ing. I filled out the hive at once with trames ot 

 brood from the other hives. 



I am pleased to see Novice maintain his en- 

 thusiasm and perseverance, and glad to hear 

 of his success up to the 3tli of July. And as he 

 •accepts my challenge with a good will, this will 

 not be cimsidered as my report. He suggests 

 deferring the reports until April, so as to in- 

 clude our winter's experiment, and as I have 

 no fears on that head, from my great success in 

 wintering, I most cheerfully accept his sugges- 

 tion. If he wishes to leave the hou(;y out of 

 the report, and conline it mainly to the increase 

 of stocks and wintering, I accept that also. 



He had only eleven stocks, and I had only 

 twelve at home, one stand being a mile off — due 

 all(»wance will be made for that. He says he 

 onl}^ had comb for about thirty stands iu all. 

 Well, that is more than I had, for when my 

 stocks had gone up to twenty-eight, my last 

 comb was used. All Irom that time were put 

 in without combs; or merely taking a frame or 

 two from other stands as guide comlis. 



Up to July 7th, I had litty-two stands ; and, 

 but tor want ot hives. I should have had titty- 

 nine — having turned seven swarms baidv. The 

 one of tlie 7th would also have been turned 

 back, but for tire extra large size. It was a 

 maiden swarm. While it hung on the limb, 

 only two feet above ground, I hastily repaired 

 an old gum tor its accommodation. The mai- 

 den and late swarms were larger than the prime 

 swarms ; and if I had had frame hives I could 

 have saved them all. Some will say, how fool- 

 ish to let them swarm so much. But it must be 

 remembered that my aim was the increase of 

 stocks, if the season was good ; though I was 

 far from expecting such an increase as this. I 

 cared for no more honey than enough for family 

 use, if I could only increase my stocks to thirty, 

 six, to begin the next year with. I have alrea- 

 dy sold over 220 pounds of honey ; and to guess 

 at the balance in the cellar and yet on the 

 stands, it will be somewhere about 400 pounds 

 mall. _ This would be equal to three swarms, 

 and thirty pounds to each of the thirteen old 

 stands. Each stand is in good condition for 

 winter, except the last three or four, which 

 may require a little feeding. Next season I do 

 not expect to allow more than one swarm, and 



intend to try Qninby's non-swarmer ; as honey 

 is the main profit in bee-keepiug here. People 

 will not buy bees or queens ; so the apiarian 

 must depend on honey as his only profit. It 

 always finds ready sale here. 



I did not commence raising queens this sea- 

 son until about the 15th of May, as I did not 

 want to weaken anjr of the stands by taking 

 away bees. I thought they were weak enough 

 until they commenced swarming. I raised very 

 few queens this summer, and not one of them 

 commenced laying until June. I think if I had 

 had a strong stand, from which I could have 

 raised queens iu April, and used them to make 

 artificial swarms in May, I could have done 

 still better. But other and more urgent busi- 

 ness, aud bad health, prevented more attention 

 to my l)ees than just to hive them, put on and 

 take "olF caps, and see to the ventilation in hot 

 weather. 



My greatest mortification in the spring was 

 to find that I iiad only one pure Italian queen 

 left, though about one-half of the twenty-six 

 stocks larft summer were pure. In wintering 

 last fall I had but little leisure, and therefore 

 did not take time to hunt up aud cage the pure 

 queens and destroy the others, which would 

 have well paid for the trouble. Now I have to 

 put pure queens in all. for I am not satisfied 

 with hybrids and prefer the pure stock. I suc- 

 ceeded this season in getting pure queens in 

 about twenty-six stands, but about two-thirds 

 of these were not purely fertilized and produced 

 hybrids. Now, as very few black bees are 

 within three miles of me, this is very hard to 

 accouut for, unless drones of hybrid queens are 

 impure, as several apiarians allege. But what 

 surprises me still more, is this : Two second 

 swarms, hived the first week in June from hy- 

 brid stands, have now turned out as pure Ital- 

 ians as I ever saw — not a black bee among them. 

 I can only account for this on one or the other 

 of two suppositions. A queen reared from a 

 hybrid queen, mating with a pure drone, will 

 produce pure workers. Or, if this is not correct, 

 can it not be that one of the young pure queens 

 was out on her excursion to meet the drones, 

 when the swarm came out, and in returning 

 got mixed with it, settled with them, and was 

 accepted in preference to their own q^een. If 

 neither of these suppositious be admissible, will 

 Gallui) or Thomas, or some more experienced 

 hand, give the explanation. I am not mistaken 

 as to the stands these swarms came trom. I 

 am also certain that they did not mix with other 

 swarms. I have all my stands numbered, and 

 keep j,n account of them all. 



NovrcE proposes to keep all his stocks on 

 their summer stands next winter. If he will 

 read volume 4, page 109, of the Journal, he 

 will see a plan that has been tried successfully 

 further north than where he resides. That plan 

 does difier from mine on the opposite page, 108, 

 only in this : I shelter and protect the outsides 

 with straw, only leaving the fronts exposed to 

 sun, and fronting south. But as I have length- 

 ened out this so far, I will reserve further 're- 

 marks on wintering for another number. 



R. M. Argo. 

 Lowell, Ky. 



